Naftali Bennett Supports Gaza Reconstruction

Jewish Home party chairman advocates trading military aid in for rice - reducing Hamas's need for warfare.

Tova Dvorin, 28/06/15 07:56

Naftali Bennett

Flash 90

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) took a surprising stance on Gaza, advocating for rebuilding despite his party's tough line on defense.

"It is time to change the policy in relation to Gaza," Bennett stated on "Meet the Press" Saturday. "We need to initiate an international process of rebuilding the Gaza Strip for civil empowerment for civilians."

"There is a problem [with the status quo, as] Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in Gaza want conditions to stay bad so we have to fight them [Hamas -ed.] all the time; it's good for them."

According to Bennett, until the state decides to retake Gaza and overthrow the Hamas government, Israel should find a more practical alternative.

"I'm not taking it off the table, but at this point I'm against that," he said. "To everyone else, it's nice that we wrestle with Hamas. But the situation is that Hamas is still there."

"We have a great interest in Gaza's civilian reconstruction," he continued. "There are creative solutions for how to cease terror tunnel rebuilding," he said and proposed "freezing Hamas's military benefits, but allowing an unlimited amount of rice in[to Gaza]."

"I came up with something called common sense, I look at reality as it is," he added. "If the time comes that we decide to topple Hamas - we can do it [...] [however,] as long as this is not the case, this is what we should do."